Consult21 PC/PPC WG update John Lee, Energis Industry Co-chair 16 May 2005

Private Circuit and PPCs First meeting 19 Jan 2005 – 23 industry reps from 12 companies Second meeting 23 Mar 2005 – 14 industry reps from 9 companies (including 1 MOLO for RBS) Next meeting May 26 th, just prior to regular PPC Industry Forum Up to 17th Jan – BT21CN statement was PC/PPC to be emulated 17th Jan – current PPC to stay, review sub-1M platform in 2008, keep SDH for others Panic over. Perhaps.

Scope to understand and track the impact of 21CN on Private Circuits (PCs), Partial Private Circuits (PPCs) and Wholesale Extension Services (WES) to ensure that existing product features are maintained where necessary to ensure that we work together to endeavour to avoid stranded assets at handover points and interconnect sites to work together to identify synergies with PPC handovers for physical layer interconnection to NGN

Method of Closure Clearance of issues raised and actions taken at PPCs Working Group meetings and Industry forums – Steering Board confirmation required for issues clearance Clear ownership of issues and actions which progress into the 21CN and non- 21CN product portfolio development stage

Issues 1 BES, BPC – under BB&LLU or PC&PPC WG? –Technicalities suggest one way, commercials say another –Co-chairs of each to attend the other WG DPCN platform review in 2008, possibly closure in 2011 Particular market segments concerned about alternative products with key characteristics that may differ – e.g. Utilities (National Grid, RECs etc) – do we need new PPC SoR? Analogue over Digital, but what about baseband copper?

Watching Brief 1 No impact on non-DPCN PPCs – but…. –John Morden has specified separacy, diversity, high- availability etc in his system request – but awaits system design feedback –PDH kit at third-party site will become obsolete – but likely to be stop for new supply but fill up what is there –New SDH delivery methods will be added via PPC forum, both Third Party and Point Of Handovers –No 21CN node data finalised to show Metronodes and MSAN mapping, so OLOs cannot plan network expansion with certainty - “new NIPP” –New SDH core, so move from current Mesh/MSH will cause service outage on existing traffic – scale, timing unknown

Issues 2 Point of Handover – multi-service capability –Exists now on SDH pipes - TDM for vocie, ATM for Datastream, TDM for PPCs –NGN interconnect WG proposing Ethernet over SDH and Ethernet –WES Industry forum asked for aggregation of Ethernet as ATM, MPLS and/or SDH – response says any Ethernet on SDH must tie in with 21Cn architecture and new products So now have current PPC and WES product lines tied to 21CN strategy –How to decouple and allow industry to develop with sensible building blocks ?

Issues 3 Stranded Assets, Node closures –Concern if Closure of BT SDH node sites but OLOs have interconnect –Offer last week – all current CSH and ISH nodes to continue. If closure needed, full debate with industry, then the SAN process. –Offers reuse of fibre to a BT site previously used for DLE, and feasibility on reuse of kit (though costs of new supply likely to be similar if not cheaper than refurbish) Did not include Tier 1 pricing to continue for current price control period (2008) No mention on impact if serving equipment moves to new site – BT to extend at their cost, but if removes separacy etc? SoRs for bulk shift from PoH 1 to PoH 2?

Watching brief 2 BTGS and OLOs need low-speed PPCs independent of MSAN offerings –Nowadays have a PPC and ISDN backup, or PPC plus PPC – so if low speed moves to SDSL and ISDN is on MSAN – then what? –Distance limit of copper and cost-hike to fibre –1M PC/PPC – innovative NTE from BT, offers N*64K Clear channel, uncontended bandwidth, side effects of BT core IP etc –Product innovation rate might be limited by changes BT can make on 21CN platform, original Datastream non-real time etc

Recap No impact on PPCs – but side effects and like-for-like feature options? Data to plan PPCs and MSAN/NGN interconnect – impact on OLO cost base, so drives OLO response to a SAN Clear Ownership PPC, WES, BES/BPC, RBS and development of new products in PPC and WES not held up for 2 years